Software: Alien Skin Snap Art

[plugsnpixels]

I've got EVERY Alien Skin plug-in (even beta tested for awhile a few years ago) and they are all excellent. Their earlier plug-ins are great for creating cool effects from scratch; their newer ones join the mainstream with image enhancing capabilities. See my various ezines for relevant tutorials.

Here are my first results with Snap Art after receiving it (note the $20 discount button). So far, my favorite filters are Comic and Stylize, though I need to experiment more with the others.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by plugsnpixels

I've got EVERY Alien Skin plug-in (even beta tested for awhile a few years ago) and they are all excellent. Their earlier plug-ins are great for creating cool effects from scratch; their newer ones join the mainstream with image enhancing capabilities. See my various ezines for relevant tutorials.

Here are my first results with Snap Art after receiving it (note the $20 discount button). So far, my favorite filters are Comic and Stylize, though I need to experiment more with the others.

Mike:

I don't see the $20 discount button you mentioned. Is it just me?
[Edit: It was me. I had to make a Zone Alarm setting change to show/enable the BUY button on the plugsandpixels site. djr]

So, that's $20 off $99 ($79) for the upgrade ($79) and likewise $20 off $149 = $129 for the non-upgrade edition if purchased through your site?

If so, very cool. That would make SA more attractive -- to me, anyway.

Thanks for the info.

[plugsnpixels]

Hi Danny, good eye! The Buy button should lead to the discount, though I just tried and am not sure when it kicks in and whether it applies to upgrades.

I'll write Alien Skin and get clarification.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

So, that's $20 off $99 ($79) for the upgrade ($79) and likewise $20 off $149 = $129 for the non-upgrade edition if purchased through your site?

If so, very cool. That would make SA more attractive -- to me, anyway.

Thanks for the info.

Mike from www.plugsnpixels.com confirmed the $20 discount through his site applies to the full (non-upgrade) version of Snap Art.

The $99 price for the upgrade version is available to anyone; it is not discounted further through plugsnpixels.

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Thanks, Mike, for that information.

[DannyRaphael]

Click here to see the original.

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The more I play with Snap Art, the more I like what it can do.

This interpretation is based on a custom "pastel" preset I made, which rendered an "oil painting" look that I liked. (To try it, unzip the attachment and double-click on the file name to install it among your Snap Art Pastel settings.)

See the Layers Palette snapshot for the layer-by-layer progression.

Notes:
* Before applying Snap Art I painted background areas with a solid color so the result would look more like a painted portrat and applied some smoothing (Gaussian blur) to jagged/artifact areas.
* I sharpened the output of Snap Art a little to give the stroke marks a little "character."
* I applied the Snap Art effect a second time using the highest possible brush size setting. I used a layer mask on this layer to selectively reveal the larger brush strokes in the background areas.
* After applying a Snap Art effect to a layer I selectively added back a little detail around the eyes, mouth and areas of detail, like jewelry in this case. To do this I add a layer mask to a layer rendered by a filter or plugin like Photoshop's Dry Brush or KPT Pyramid Paint or Xero Caravaggio or even a copy of the original, unmodified background.

[DannyRaphael]

Here's one based on the custom Pencil Sketch preset I uploaded about 5 posts above this one.

[DannyRaphael]

http://artspin.com/snapart/index.html

Courtesy of Daveyjj at this site is a gallery of a common image to which EVERY SINGLE factory installed preset has been applied. This is a great resource for assessing what this plugin can do "right out of the box."

Well done, David.

[plugsnpixels]

Danny, thanks for posting that blog link! Fantastic job he did. Please let us know of other plug-in related resources like that.

[DannyRaphael]

Snap Art Example Book created by David Janik-Jones:
http://www.alienskin.com/snapart/snapart_downloads.html

This 20 page .pdf document is richly illustrated. I found it to be a valuable resource to compare setting results and a great way to "remember" which settings do what.

[Bob Mc]

Mike,
Check these out - at the bottom of the page

http://www.atncentral.com/tutorials.htm

I did these a few years ago - and the examples include some from older sw packages and some from plug-ins. Most capabilities I don't think have changed very much since then.

Hope its helpful

Regards

Bob Mc

[plugsnpixels]

Thanks Bob!

[Andrew B.]

I'm in the process of testing Snap Art now. It's ability to sketch and draw is well behind other plugins, and well behind Photoshop's native sketch filters. As for oils, I think it does okay. But I've seen lots of better results here by people using other methods. But there is one thing it does very well. The Comics section. I love the lattice and half-toning. I just don't know if/when I'd use them.

[DannyRaphael]

See 1st (top) post...

2 additional links added to "Gallaries and examples" list.

I found some of the artwork to be quite impressive.

[kombizz]

How could I get hold of this software?
Is it free or if it is not, how much it would be?
Thanks

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by kombizz

How could I get hold of this software?
Is it free or if it is not, how much it would be?
Thanks

See: http://www.alienskin.com/snapart/index.html

Not free; cost is less if you already own one of their other products.